# Chapter 11

Rain started outside. From the window Michael could see the mega-structures with all their artificial beauty, suddenly wet. And drops of water falling in between the places. For Alice and Frank, the selling part was not interesting, they had seen it done many times. They were minding their own business, occasionally looking at the conversation if an interesting point came along. The conversation had already started before they came in. There was a person sitting the room. Physically sitting. Not on a call. He was dressed rather nicely, but his face expressed utter stupidity. 

"This is exactly what I'm talking about Mr. Garthele." - said Mr. Molly - "You don't want it to repeat... And you don't want to miss the occasion."

Mr. Garthele nodded. He said - "But how? There is no way it could be fixed without buying a whole new car.". 

"Don't give your money to these bastards. It could be done a lot cheaper and I know how."

"Software? I don't have time, Johnny, to look for software. And how important is it anyway? Just a bloody asteroid?"

"The chances of something like this happening in a lifetime are very low. And you have a chance to see it with your own eyes. In fact, you don't need to look for nothing. I have just the right program for your compression chamber."

Mr. Molly took out his computer. Michael started to realize what was the problem of Mr. Garthele. Something broke in his car, presumably on the software level. And Mr. Molly was offering him a replacement.

"I'll show you it on my own car" - said Mr. Molly. And the two went out the room. Michael wanted to go after them but didn't dare. He watched the following through the window. 

Two males came out into the rain, Mr. Molly was rumbling about something. Mr. Garthele took out a device from his pocket. It was non-electrical. He pressed a button and it unfolded into an umbrella. Michael looked at them talk and couldn't bare the fact that he couldn't hear them.

"Go listen" - said Alice from behind.

Michael hesitated for a moment, but then he went out as well. It was wet. Michael was standing under a poring rain trying to listen what the two gentlemen speak about. Two of them looked at something on the edge of the door to a car. There was a small screen.

"It's outrageous!" - cried Mr. Garthele - "It's too much."

"I can give you ten percent off if you install it right away."

Mr. Garthele noticed Michael's presence. "What do you want, kid?" - he said as if he was guarding something. Mr. Molly stepped in - "Quite frankly, Michael is a legal adult. Yes, he is rather young. But he is not a kid.". Mr. Garthele turned back to Mr. Molly - "Yeah, but... Why is he listening to us?".

"I'm trying to learn how to argue." - said Michael. Mr. Molly was infuriated by it. "We are not arguing, Michael" - said Mr. Molly - "We are talking.".

"What's the difference?"

"Have you leaned what I asked Frank to teach you?"

Michael thought about it. Of course... He thought. Norepinephrine, or what ever was the name of that drug. If Mr. Garthele will not notice that they are arguing, there will not be any of it. And so proving him the idea of buying something would be simpler.

Mr. Molly turned to Mr. Garthele and continued - "See, Mr. Garthele, I will take my kids to the top of the structures to see the asteroid. And I'd like you to be there with us. I will install the thing myself. You will get the full package, source code and everything. And you will not need to look for a damn thing yourself. Just forget about all worries and you will be compressed and good.".

"Ten percent?" - asked Mr. Garthele.

"Yes. If you let me do it right now." - smiled Mr. Molly.

"Well, to hell with it... Deal!" - said Mr. Garthele. They both went to the other car, leaving Michael alone. The rain didn't bother him at all. It was so simple, he thought. 

Michael went back into the house where Alice waited him with a towel. She was quite unhappy. When he took the towel, she pointed he finger at an umbrella that was placed besides the door. Michael shrugged. Alice was serious. She said - "All wet clothes... Off!". And they went into the room.

They didn't have intimacy in the regular sense. Even thought she had passed the legal requirements to be adult. There were physical boundaries of what they could do without harming her. But even though, the regular way those kind of things tent to happen, didn't happened. They used creativity to get to the same conclusion. Which was - satisfaction. 

After Michael and Alice filled themselves with enough Oxytocin, Johnathan went with Mr. Garthele to a test drive. So he left the kids alone at home. Frank thought of a game involving running and holographic projections. They built maps out of primitive objects, placing them in various places in the room. And then Frank programmed them to glow and make noise when touched. The game was to run around without touching one. It was fine, but one participant quite frankly didn't like the rules of the game at all. She was touching every single shape constantly. It was Newt. She would cause an object to glow and make noise. And she would smile so wide that everybody else was dying from adorableness. 

Later all of them sat in a big pile of kids and watched films. They were usually cartoons. And the shapes would pop out of the screens. But it was not a pure hologram. There were still zooms and camera angles and stuff like that. It reminded more 3D cinema, then a hologram. Even though you most definitely didn't need glasses for that one.

That night Michael slept in the Molly's home. Tomorrow would be a rather big day for them. For Mr. Molly and Frank it was the day of the huge asteroid passing between the earth and the moon. For Alice and Michael it would be a day to show him to Alice's mother. They tried to sleep. Some managed. Some were too excited. But nevertheless the next day had come. 
